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Newbury Street will be without one more local business by the end of the month as Audrey’s Pet Supply prepares to shut its doors.

The pet supply store first opened on the bustling street nearly three years ago, but a substantial rent hike is forcing the shop to close by the end of the month, according to owner Brittany Bang.

Bang said she offered to a pay a 38 percent rent increase, but was outbid by a frozen yogurt chain offering to pay a rent that equaled a 133 percent increase.

For Bang, a Back Bay native, the loss of her store is part of a larger problem facing the neighborhood as small, locally owned businesses give way to chain stores that can pay higher rents.

“There needs to be a balance for Newbury Street to stay special,” Bang said in a phone interview.

It was Newbury Street’s history of hosting unique, local shops that led Bang to open on Newbury Street, and it's that atmosphere, Bang said, that creates a community for local residents and attracts customers from out of town.

“The reason [tourists] are going to come here is because they want to find stores they aren’t going to find in every strip mall in America,” she said.

Bang is not the first to cite rising rent or lease trouble as a reason for closing.

Bang said she has seen an increase in people supporting small businesses, but would like start a conversation about what else can be done to support them, such as limiting the number of national chain stores that can open in the area or control the percentage rent can increase in one year.

“I’m one store. I can’t change the face of Newbury Street, but I do think talking about it make people aware of it is is the most important step...I don’t have a solution but I have lots ideas,” she said.

Bang said the outpouring of support from customers has been overwhelming since she announced she would close.